A Snake in the Grass (28 page)

Reina hissed in displeasure, I’m sure at the
light, and my eyes landed on her next. It was…not what I’d
expected.

I’d seen one once before, and the sight had
nearly ripped my sanity out of my skull. To look upon it is both
indescribably beautiful, and so terrifying that a person should run
screaming and never stop. The last time, I’d groveled with my face
on the ground, and considered myself pretty damn brave for the
effort.

This time…it wasn’t the same. Reina was an
angel. Or maybe had been, at one time. Under the human guise she
donned, her true form was wreathed in hues of gold that artists
haven’t even invented yet. Gold and white and silver, just like the
old crazy homeless guy in L.A., Felix. But where his had been a
pure light, agonizing in its perfection, hers bled into browns,
reds, blacks at the very edges. Where his had seemed to rise right
into the sky, hers was grounded firmly to earth, leeching into the
soil below our feet, tainting all that she touched. Her, I could
look upon without pain, without feeling like my brain was about to
go trickling out my ears.

And I realized, juiced up like I was, that I
wasn’t the least bit afraid of her. “You should go now. They really
want to fry your sorry ass, and I don’t know that I can stop
them.”

The area that should be her face colored in
mottled shades of blood red and sickening orange. “Do you think you
can do me harm, worm?”

“I’m willing to give it a shot. And even if
I’m wrong, that’ll be two hundred and seventy-five souls that
you’ll never see. Pretty sure sacrificing themselves will put them
back on the big G’s good list. They won’t be headed down.”

She wavered, weighing the odds, and in the
end I was pretty sure it was greed, not fear, that won out. “This
is not over, soul-bearer. We will see each other again.” In less
than an eyeblink, she vanished, leaving behind the stench of
sulfur.

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes, but it
didn’t help. I could still see the blood pulsing in my eyelids,
taste the salt on the air from the ocean so far out of sight. “When
you’re ready, guys. I think we made our point.”

The souls receded slowly, reluctantly, but
finally every iridescent tattoo was back under my shirt where it
belonged, and I could open my eyes to find only the darkness of a
moonlit forest night. “Estéban…”

It took me a bit to find a place where the
chasm narrowed so that I could cross it, and then longer to make my
way back to my protégé, still just a dark heap in the grass where
he’d landed.

His skin was warm when I touched him, which
was my first relief, and then I found a pulse, slow but steady in
his neck. “Thank you,” I whispered, and I couldn’t even say for
sure who I was grateful to.

I know you’re not supposed to move people, in
case of more injuries, but I had to roll him over onto his back to
try and get a better look. He had an egg-sized lump on his skull,
and there was dried blood on a small stone next to him. Just bad
luck in the landing. “Kid. C’mon, kid, you gotta open those eyes.”
I patted his cheek gently, all the while, the words ‘traumatic
brain injury’ running through my head.

Finally, his eyelids twitched, then fluttered
open, though he was having a hard time focusing on me. “Jesse?”

“Yeah, kid.” I couldn’t help it, a small
laugh escaped, probably not appropriate to the situation at all.
“Christ, kid. Helluva time you picked for a nap.”

“I’ll do better next time.” His eyes darted
this way and that, trying to see past me. “Where is she? Reina,
where….?”

“She’s gone. Gone back to wherever bad things
go when they’re not out being evil.”

“Did you kill her?”

“No. Missed my chance.”

“We have to tell Mamá, we have to…” He made
the mistake of trying to sit up before I could stop him, and almost
passed out again.

“Easy there, you’re in no shape yet to go
traipsing around.”

His face was pale, I could see that even in
the darkness. “How do we get home?”

“Well, kid, it’s like this.” Settling into a
more comfortable position, I very carefully shifted him to that his
head was pillowed on my thigh. “I’m gonna sit here and keep you
awake all night, because of the concussion I know you have. And
when the sun comes up in the morning, all bright and shiny, your
mom is going to send out the cavalry to come find us. And then
we’ll go home.”

“Can’t do that,” he mumbled, his words
slurring just slightly. “Not safe here, the old magic.”

“You let me worry about that. Just stay with
me, okay kid? Why don’t you recite your multiplication tables, to
start. And then maybe we’ll talk about baseball stats or
something.”

He blinked at me, uncomprehending, so I
prompted him with the first one. “One times one is…?”

“One.
Uno
.”

“Ooh, tricky hm? Gonna go for both languages?
Okay, smart ass, two times two.”

“Four.
Cuatro
.”

“Three times three.”

“Nine.
Nueve
.”

Chapter 18

Dawn came with Estéban’s head still resting
in my lap. He’d drifted into a normal sleep at some point, and so
long as he still protested when I pinched his arm, I let him have
it. If nothing else, it gave me time to think. There was a lot I
had to sort out, after all of this.

Our clothes were damp with dew by the time I
heard an engine in the distance, and fifteen minutes later, Sveta
came bursting through the trees at the edge of the clearing, gun in
one hand, and her bared shaska blade in the other.

“Time to wake up kid, the cavalry’s
here.”

“Mmph.” Still, Estéban blinked his eyes open
slowly, and they looked a little better than they had last
night.

“Sveta! We’re here!” I waved my hand until
she located us. “Watch out for the big hole in the ground!”

Between the two of us, we managed to get
Estéban back to the vehicles, Terrence waiting in the second pickup
truck. I loaded Miguel’s bike up into the back of the other, and we
caravanned back up to the Perez compound.

As far as injuries went, we were all going to
be okay. The kid was going to be on light duty for a week or so
until his brain unscrambled, but I think that was the only thing
that kept Sveta from kicking his ass. She was a little pissed about
getting clocked in the dome.

Carlotta was back on her feet, though she’d
declared herself merely a supervisor as the kid-pack assembled
breakfast with their usual chaotic efficiency. She grabbed my hand
as I walked past, pressing a kiss to my knuckles before releasing
me. Her way of saying thanks. I gave her a small smile, then went
to collapse. I was too old for all-nighters.

In the boys’ room, I carefully placed The Way
back in the case where it belonged, and laid the machete on
Estéban’s bunk. They’d ensconced him in his mother’s bed, being the
biggest and most comfy, with Rosaline keeping careful watch on him
for the concussion. Sinking onto my own low cot, I rested my head
in my hands for a long time, only now allowing the shakes to
come.

Eventually, I laid down and slept, the rest
of the truly exhausted. No dreams came, no visions of Gretchen
Keene toppling to her death, or of a large arena with a mysterious
figure at the other end. Just darkness, quiet and peaceful. When I
woke, I started packing up my gear.

“You cannot leave yet! We have not yet
figured out how to remove the souls!” Carlotta was understandably
against the plan.

“I didn’t intend to live here forever,
Carlotta. You’ve seen enough of it now, you have a good place to
keep working from. I’m going home to my wife and my children.” That
was one thing I’d decided during my long vigil. The world was going
to Hell, in a fairly literal sense. I couldn’t stop that, but I
could
go be with my wife while she gave birth to my second
child. I could play with my daughter, and teach her katas and how
to make the world’s best PB&J sandwich. I was pretty sure I
didn’t have a lot of time left, but I could choose how I would
spend it.

Now that I’d declared what I was thinking of
as “the nuclear option”, I didn’t think the demons would be coming
after me so overtly. They wanted the souls intact more than they
wanted me dead. It would buy me some time, buy Carlotta and
Terrence more time to figure out a solution.

Because of course, Terrence was staying in
Mexico. No one was surprised when he made his gruff declaration,
but Estéban and I hid our grins. Seriously, old people in love are
adorable.

Carlotta made a few token protests. “Who is
going to protect Jesse, then? Sveta cannot do it alone.”

“I am.” Every person in the room turned and
blinked at Estéban, but he held his chin up and didn’t flinch at
all. “I’ve thought about this a lot. Mamá…” He leaned over to take
her hands. “I’m not sure that I can be a champion, not like Papa
and Joaquin and Miguel. I’m not sure… I’m not sure that I believe
what they believed, about all of this.”

Carlotta nodded slowly, simply waiting for
him to go on.

“But what I do believe is that Jesse is a
good man, and that he fights for the right things. I think I can
better serve at his right hand, than by risking my life for people
who may or may not deserve it.”

I raised a brow at him. “Practiced that in
the mirror, did you?”

The kid blushed, but chuckled. “Like twenty
times.”

His mother just looked at him, reaching out
to smooth a stray lock of hair off his forehead. Her fingers traced
his jaw, rough from not shaving for a few days, like the rest of
us, and then she straightened the collar of his T-shirt even though
he didn’t need it. “Oh,
mi hijo
.” She turned to look at me.
“Do you agree? Do you think that my son can protect you?”

I didn’t hesitate. “Absolutely. There’s no
one else I’d trust as much.” The kid flashed me a beaming grin that
made him look every bit as young as he was, and I just gave him a
nod. I meant every word. If it was all going to come to an end,
there were very few people in the world I’d rather have with
me.

“Señor Zelenko will not like this…” Carlotta
tried again, and I just shook my head.

“I’ll handle Ivan. Don’t you worry about
him.” Sveta snorted at my statement, but when I gave her a
challenging look, she just raised her hands in acquiescence. “All
right, you two. Pack it up. We’re heading home as soon as we can
get a plane.”

As soon as we could get a plane turned out to
be two days later. Despite the lack of body, the Perez clan gave
Paulito a suitable funeral, and neither Estéban nor myself felt
like telling them exactly how he died.

I cornered the kid a couple times, just to
see how he was handling it. I mean, he
had
killed his own
cousin, even if that thing hadn’t really been Paulito anymore.

Estéban paused in making repairs to the goat
fence, eyeing his hands for a moment. “That monster was not my
cousin. The transformations are irreversible, he could not have
been saved. It was a mercy killing.”

“You sure you’re okay?”

“Do I have a choice?”

Our exit from the Perez home was like our
departure from my house, only magnified by like a thousand. Every
member of the clan had to come say farewell to their departing
hero, and that process in and of itself took nearly an hour.
Paulito’s mother pressed tearful kisses to his cheeks, and blessed
him in the name of every saint I’d ever heard of, and he promised
to pray for Paulito’s soul which made her weep harder. All through
it, the kid’s eyes stayed dry, his stance firm. Even when Carlotta
held him close and whispered quietly to him, he only hugged her in
return then waved a smiling goodbye to his family.

Homecoming was sweet, but I think my family
was happier to see Estéban than they were to see me. Mira fussed
over the still-visible lump on his head, and Anna latched onto her
adopted big brother and refused to let go for at least the first
hour I was home. I could see that Estéban was just as happy to be
back home, and despite all he’d been through, there was something
lighter about him than when we’d left.

The first thing I asked of him and Sveta,
though, got some pushback.

“Did
you
get hit in the head?” Sveta
glared at me suspiciously.

Esteban nodded his agreement. “This is a bad
idea. Those wards are strong, there’s no reason to dismantle
them.”

“I have my reasons. Just do it. And then I’m
going to introduce you to someone we’re going to be seeing a lot
of, I think.”

Reluctance in every gesture, the pair of them
set about taking apart Terrence’s carefully constructed wards
around my back yard. Standing out by my water garden, I felt when
the last of them snapped, the ever-present tingle under my skin
fading away into nothing. I took a deep breath and rolled my
shoulders, and even the souls in my back felt a bit more relieved
to not have that constant pressure on them.

“All right. I want the two of you to stand
back on the patio, and for the love of everything, do
not
say anything. Especially not your names, understand?” Their
expressions said they didn’t, but they obeyed, watching me
warily.

I waited until they were standing back by the
sliding glass door, then turned to face out into the yard. “Axel.”
I got no response, at first, at least none that was visible. But my
eyes weren’t my only sense, and the hint of sulfur teased my nose.
“I know you’re here. Come out. I want to introduce you to some
folks.”

A few more moments passed before the tall
figure emerged from behind a sapling tree that shouldn’t have been
big enough to hide a pencil. I heard Sveta’s breath catch behind
me, and held up a hand. “It’s all right. He’s fine.”

Axel raised a pierced brow at me, glancing
over my shoulder to look at the pair on the patio. He hooked his
thumbs in his belt loops, looking for all the world like a
slouching, petulant teenager. “Didn’t know you were going to out me
like this.”